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As you may be aware we love walking along our local beach and on one late afternoon we saw the most spectacular sunset. The colours of the clouds were so amazing that I was inspired to use the yellows and different shades of pink to create today’s page.

For the background I used Abandoned Coral, Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed Distress Inks; first by applying the ink pad to an acrylic block, diluting with water and applying the diluted ink to the page with a blending tool and then by using the blending tool to add the ink directly from the ink pad to build up areas of colour in cloud like patterns. Then I dripped water onto the page which reactivated the ink so I could remove it with a piece of kitchen towel. I used the same Distress Inks to stamp a circle and heart stamp design from Sugarloaf Inc. Next I created a circle stencil and stamped a splatter stamp, from Gummiapan, through it using black Archival Ink. Then using the same black ink I added a dot stamp by Art Impressions and a series of images from an Urban Stamp set which included small hearts, the word love and zigzag faux stitching. I also splattered black and white DecoArt acrylic paint over the page using a paintbrush. I added a glittery pink heart foam sticker as it was quite romantic watching the sun go down, and also a polka dot yellow bird as we often see birds on our walks along the beach. Then to finish, I added some wooden flowers which are stuck into place using Glossy Accents and finally some rhinestone flower stickers.

Here’s the sunset that inspired my page, isn’t it stunning! The beauty of the sunset was captivating; it looked so magical that it didn’t look real. I snapped this picture using my phone and we stayed quite a while, despite the cold, watching the sun go down (grin!).

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

On one of our walks we discovered a woodland of silver birch, these trees look so striking at winter time and we were surprised by how many that we saw. It was such an amazing sight that I created a page to remember them (grin!).

I started by painting a wash of Salty Ocean Distress Ink by applying the ink pad to an acrylic block, adding lots of water and applying it with a large paintbrush. While the page was still wet I added some more Salty Ocean ink using the paintbrush to build up layers of colour and then I also added some Pine Needles and Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink to the bottom of the page for the foreground. Then I added some drops and splatters by pressing the Salty Ocean ink that was on the acrylic block onto the page. Next I cut out some tree trunks from a design paper from Docrafts Papermania and the two deer are fussy cut from an old calendar. I varied the height and widths of the trees and placed one of the deer behind the front row of trees to give perspective, they are all stuck down using Liquitex Matte Gel Medium. Once the gel medium was dry, I added layers of Pébéo white gesso and black DecoArt acrylic paint to the tree trunks using an old gift card; I dried each layer of paint with a heat gun before I added the next. I then stuck the other deer into place using the Liquitex matte gel medium and splattered the whole page with white DecoArt acrylic paint and also diluted grey Faber-Castell Big Brush marker using a paintbrush. While the paint dried, I die cut some berry branches using my Big Shot and Sizzix thinlets by Tim Holtz. They are stuck in place using a Zig Memory System glue pen and I added silver Ranger Stickles to each berry. Next I used a black Derwent Graphik marker and white Pentel gel pen to add more detail to the trees and deer. To emphasis the snow fall I added some pretty blue and lavender coloured dots which are stickers and added more white splatters using the white DecoArt acrylic paint. I also painted some snow around the base of the trees and then to finish, I stamped “Winter Woodland” on the left hand side of the page using an alphabet stamp set by Dovecraft and black Archival Ink.

Here are the silver birch trees, don’t they look stunning! We saw them on the same walk at a nature reserve, which I featured in a previous post, when we visiting family in the South of England.

If you are interested here are some fun silver birch tree facts from the UK:

Traditionally, the tree was used to make maypoles and to start the fires to celebrate Beltane, the festival of new beginnings where they danced around the maypole to ensure healthy and abundant crops.

The silver birch was also a highly protective influence, especially on Midsummer’s Eve when its boughs were hung over doors to guard off evil and bring good luck.

In olden days its leaves were brewed into a tea and used to treat infection and stimulate a healthy vitality.

Early man stitched the bark together to make food vessels and canoes for hunting.

The silver birch is treasured for its silver-white bark and is seen in many gardens where it is especially loved by the bees and birds.

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

I’m pleased to be able to join the lovely Rike from rike’s art, who is hosting the Animals A-Z challenge over at Art Journal Journey, as I used artistic licence and added some deer to my page (grin!).

I couldn’t wait to use my new Big Shot die cutting machine which I received for Christmas so I created this page (grin!).

You may have seen that I referred to it in my last post and I was amazed at how many of you guessed correctly (double grin!). I’d also like to thank everyone for all their lovely wishes of congratulations when I became a member of the Try it on Tuesday Design Team too, I’m overwhelmed by your kindness, thank you!

To create the background, I added Hickory Smoke, Tea Dye and Milled Lavender Distress Inks by applying the ink pads to an acrylic block, spritzing with water and pressing the block onto the page. Then I stamped a couple of snowflake designs from BoBunny using London Fog, Toffee Crunch and Lulu Lavender Memento Inks. Next I created all the lovely leaves from different design papers using my new Big Shot; I chose a blue colour palette to give a wintry and frosty feel to the page. I used a holly die to create the leaves and had such fun using the Big Shot to produce them all, as you can see I made quite a few (grin!). I edged each of the leaves with a grey Faber-Castell Big Brush marker to make them stand out a bit more from the background, which took quite some time! Then I layered them onto the page using glue dots or double-sided foam tape and a Zig Memory System glue pen. Once in place I also curled the leaves so they looked more dimensional. The pretty bird and fence posts are fussy cut from last year’s calendar and are edged with grey Faber-Castell Big Brush marker; the calendar features British Birds and this one is called a Great Tit which frequents woodland and gardens alike. They are stuck down using a UHU Stic and I added some of the leaves around them too. Next I added a pretty winter scene tag by Pion Designs, a sticker from Graphic 45 and also some words which I cut from an old magazine, mounted onto a piece of thick paper and stuck into place using double-sided foam tape. The words read “A sprinkle of magic” which reminds me of frost and snow this time of year. To finish, I added Icicle Sparkles to the snow on the fence posts and lots of blue gems using Glossy Accents.

I had so much fun using my Big Shot and having never used a die cutting machine before, I had a fun adventure finding out how it worked and how to use it (grin!). I have a very limited supply of dies at the moment but couldn’t wait to get creative so made do with what I had and I love the page that resulted!

If you have any suggestions of brands or actual dies that you would recommend and couldn’t live without, then please let me know by leaving a comment below. This will help me decide what to put on my wish list as I really don’t know where to start (double grin!).

As I included my cuppa in the photo above, I’m pleased to join Bleubeard and Elizabeth and the rest of the T Gang over at T Stands for Tuesday – sending you all Happy T day wishes!

If you are wondering, here’s the photo of my craft room from my last post, you can see my new Big Shot on the left-hand side (grin!).

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

I’m pleased to join the lovely Erika N, also known as BioArtGal, who is hosting the New Year, New Adventures challenge over at Art Journal Journey with my winter page that I created on my Big Shot adventure (grin!).

As I used stamping and other mixed media to create my art journal page, I’m pleased to join the Craft Stamper Take It, Make It Challenge and their January Challenge: Anything Goes!: (stamping MUST be included).

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year filled with love, peace and happiness!

I went for a grunge look today and started by applying acrylic paints to the edges of the page using an old plastic gift card. The paints I used were Navy Liquitex acrylic paint, a metallic gold paint and then also some white and some black DecoArt acrylic paint. I also used the same paints to stamp stars and hearts around the edge of the page using an Urban Stamps set by Docrafts Papermania. I used up the excess paint by applying it to some white paper and also to the centre area of the page. Once the paint had dried I used the same star stamp with black Archival Ink to add more detail to the stars and border. Next I added some previously stamped white tissue paper from my craft stash, using Liquitex Matte Gel Medium to stick it in place; the stamps used include a chandelier, postage marks, words, starburst, Art Deco border, numbers, scroll work and music sheet. These pre-stamped images are leftover from pages that I have created as I often stamp the image onto tissue paper and then place it on my page in order to see what it looks like first (grin!). When the gel medium had dried I applied a very thin layer of Pébéo white gesso to blend them into the background more. Then I used some sparkly gold glitter tape to add the sun burst pattern to the page and added the “Happy New Year!” sentiment and “2018” which are foam stickers. I added shadows to them using a black Derwent Graphik marker and a black Derwent Inktense pencil. Then I splattered the page with white and also black DecoArt acrylic paint using a paint brush. The stars are made from gold outline stickers which I backed with a starry night paper from The Works and grey script paper from Craft Sensations along with some white paper which I had applied the leftover paint to earlier. I cut the stars out of the papers and stuck them down using double-sided foam tape, this finished the page.

I hope you all had a wonderful time over the holiday season! Here are our New Year drinks, a Poinsettia cocktail for me and a homemade Christmas beer for my hubby – cheers and wishing you all the very best for 2018!

With this drink related photo, I’m saying a big hello the T Gang at T Stands for Tuesday and wishing you all a Happy T Day!

Challenges

I’m glad that I found out about Challenge Blogs as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with so much inspiration and it’s a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people too. The New Year brings some new exciting themes, so here are the challenges I’m joining today:

I’m pleased to join the lovely Erika N, also known as BioArtGal, who is hosting the “New Year, New Adventures” challenge over at Art Journal Journey with my Happy New Year journal page.

I’m joining Moo Mania & More and their “Somebody/Something/The New Year” challenge – Happy New Year!

I hope you’re having a wonderful Christmastime and wishing you all a very Happy New Year!

Today’s page is inspired by Christmastime and all things vintage! I started by covering the page with a music sheet from a book of Christmas carols that I picked up in a charity shop (thrift store); you may know the carol and I liked that the title referenced both Christmas and the New Year. I ripped the page into three pieces and stuck them down along with some gold, gold star and gold holly tissue papers using a UHU Stic. When the glue had dried I added Toffee Crunch and Rich Cocoa Memento Inks to the edge of the page and papers using a blending tool. Next I stamped a snowflake design from the Woodware Craft Collection using Emboss ink, then I covered it with white Stampendous embossing powder and shook off the excess powder onto a piece of scrap paper. I also tapped the page to make sure any stray powder was removed and then I used a heat gun to melt the embossing powder. I swept the gun over the stamped images, taking care not to direct the heat in one area for too long until the embossing powder changed to a glossy finish becoming smooth and dimensional. The gold trees are relief stickers by Crelando and the vintage images are cut using serrated scissors from an old magazine and a 12×12” paper sheet of Tags from the Glistening Season collection from Pion Designs; they are edged with the Toffee Crunch ink and arranged on the page using double-sided tape and some fabric washi tape. The “December 25” sign is a Victorian Christmas 3D sticker from Docrafts Papermania which I stuck down with a glass candy cane decoration. The candy cane is from an incomplete set of wine charms purchased at a charity shop; wine charms are small ornaments that you attach to a wine glass at a party so you know which glass is yours. I also tied some white paper twine to a round wooden tree tag and added it to the page. The white ribbon is recycled from a Christmas cracker and I tied it into a bow. To finish, I added lots of glittery gold snowflakes which are stickers.

I’d also like to thank the Allsorts Challenge Blog for my early Christmas present of the Pion Design paper and the Toffee Crunch Memento Ink that I used to create this page. I won them over at their challenge from Swedish House Crafts, along with some other goodies too (grin!).

I love Christmas music and play it at every opportunity this time of year (grin!), so I was really pleased to find a book of carols in my local charity shop. The carol I used for my page is “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen”, if you are interested:

This carol is also known as “Tidings of Comfort and Joy”.

It is a traditional English Christmas carol which is thought to date back to the 16th Century. It was first published by William Sandys in 1833.

This carol is referred to inA Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 1843: “… at the first sound of ‘God bless you, merry gentlemen! May nothing you dismay!’, Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost.”

There have been many covers of this carol including Bing Crosby in 1947, Nat King Cole in 1960, Nancy Sinatra in 1991, Mariah Carey in 1994, Glee in 2010 and many more. Each of the names is a link to their version of the carol – now I’m wondering which one you would choose to listen too?

I received a lovely surprise from my hubby, look what was waiting for me at elevenses with my cup of green tea – a yummy gingerbread Christmas Tree (grin!). As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m saying a big hello to the T Gang and wishing you all a very Christmassy T Day!

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with so much inspiration for my pages and it’s a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people too. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

I’m also joining the “Believe” challenge over at the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge with my vintage Christmas page as my design and colour palette was influenced by their inspirational photo – Merry Christmas!

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:

I always look forward to Christmastime and I love sending cards to wish family and friends happiness and good cheer (grin!). I am very thankful when I receive cards too and have created a page to celebrate this by using some of the pretty Christmas postage stamps from the cards that I have received.

I started by stamping different postmarks and texts using Memento Inks to create the background for the page. The stamps included a set of The Works Clear Stamps, the Tropical Travelogue stamp set from Graphic 45 by Hampton Art, the Birdsong stamp set from 7 Gypsies also by Hampton Art and finally the Letters to Santa stamp set from Docrafts Papermania. The Memento Ink colours I used were Love Letters, Pistachio, London Fog and Teal Zeal. Next I cut the envelopes containing the postage stamps to shape, using a pair of scissors with a serrated edge, and stuck them to the page using a UHU Stic. The silver frames and borders are outline stickers, some of which I coloured black using a Sharpie permanent marker and black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker. I also added some postal mark outline stickers and embellished the postage stamps and frames using some snowflake and star stickers. Then I edged inside and around some of the frames using a Derwent Graphik marker and also around the edges of the page using the black Faber-Castell Big Brush marker. The red glitter star embellishments and small clear, red, and black gems finished the page.

You may have seen some of the Christmas cards I made this year in previous posts. I also make sweet treats to give to friends instead of Christmas cards. As you can see, I made quite a few bags this year which were for all our Love My Beach friends.

Each bag contains 3 pieces of Maltesers Fudge and a piece of Maltesers Tiffin (Maltesers are also known as Malt Balls).

I was curious to find out more about Christmas cards, if you’re interested here are the facts I discovered:

Sir Henry Cole and John Horsley invented the Christmas card in 1843 and sold them for a shilling. In 2000, an original Cole and Horsely’s card fetched £20,000 when it was auctioned in the UK which can be seen here.

A few years after the first card was made, the UK Parliament passed the Postal Act which allowed people to send letters and cards for just a penny.

Early Christmas cards tended to be flowers, fairies and exotic designs and rarely showed the religious or wintry scenes we see today.

In America, a German printer Louis Prang started mass producing cards in 1875 and until then, they were considered a luxury that only the rich could afford. By 1881, over 5 million cards were being produced every year in the US.

In Victorian England, the Post Office delivered cards on Christmas Day in the UK. Postmen were often known as robins because of their bright red uniforms and robins became a popular card Christmas card motif.

Every year in the UK alone, an estimated 1.8 billion Christmas cards are sent and received. The average UK household sends out about 50 cards each Christmas.

45% of all cards sent are for Christmas but only 15% of these Christmas cards are bought by men.

Designing and making personal Christmas cards is one of the most popular craft hobbies in the UK.

An estimated £50 million is raised for charities by selling their Christmas cards each year.

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today:

I created this page to wish all my friends here in blog-land Happy Holidays and, if you celebrate, a very Merry Christmas too!

I started by using some relief sticker surrounds to add detail to the page. Firstly using them as a stencil by sticking them down and applying Festive Berries and Peeled Paint Distress Inks with a blending tool. I also used the blending tool to add a circular pattern with the Peeled Paint ink. I then wiped the ink from the relief stickers with a piece of kitchen towel, removed them and reapplied them to different areas of the page to add more depth and interest. I love the white against this red and green colour combination. As the Distress Ink reactivates when wet I added some water droplets with a paintbrush and used kitchen roll to dry them which removed some of the ink. Next I added the snowflakes which are glittery Wall Stickers and the “Happy Holidays” writing and baubles, which are rub-on transfers from Royal & Langnickel. The little reindeer are Christmas decorations which I spotted whilst out shopping which I couldn’t resist buying them as they looked so cute (grin!). I stuck them to the page using a UHU glue pen and also a gold Brad; I did this by punching a hole through the page and wrapping ribbon around the brad before fastening it. I also covered the back of the brad with a piece of masking tape to protect my next journal page. I added red Stickles on one of the reindeer noses and Dovecraft 3D Black Pearl Effects on the other reindeer’s nose and also their eyes. A stitched ribbon tag which says “Merry Christmas” that I stuck down using double-sided foam tape finishes the page.

Every year I make a Christmas cake, I love baking and always make my own almond paste (marzipan) and fondant icing as well. My cake decoration changes each year and this year it is decorated with white stars and poinsettias (grin!).

I always make a light fruit cake rather than the traditional rich fruit cake. My recipe is a take on a Dundee Fruit Cake and contains no citrus/mixed peel and has dried sultanas, currants, pineapple, dates, apricots and cherries in it which are soaked in brandy for a week before I make it so they are nice and plump – yum!

We always cut our cake the week before Christmas and it’s lovely with a cuppa for elevensies! So I’m pleased to join the T Gang over at T Stands for Tuesday – Happy T Day! Wishing you all Happy Holidays and a very Merry Christmas! Jo x

Challenges

I’m glad I found out about Challenge Blogs as I enjoy taking part, they provide me with inspiration for my pages and are a wonderful way to meet like-minded arty people. So here are the challenges I’m joining today: